Jeep has been building SUVs for longer than most of us have been alive. And the competent and charismatic Grand Cherokee stands as proof that the company has indeed learned a thing or two about building SUVs over the years.

Next to the military-issue GPs that scuttled through Korea in the Fifties, even the base Grand Cherokee Laredo is as opulent as Buckingham Palace. Next to its present-day competition, however, it's neither lavish nor inexpensive, with a rather lofty price of entry starting in the high-$20K neighborhood for the 195-hp V-6 Laredo, soaring up to about $38K for an Overland edition with options.

Granted, if you're spending nearly $40K on a Grand Cherokee Overland, you're riding around in something pretty posh, with super-soft leather seats, real wood trim, a 260-hp V-8 and Jeep's most sophisticated four-wheel drive system, Quadra Drive. But even that doesn't mask the Grand Cherokee's innate shortcomings, such as a relatively cramped cabin, a paucity of cargo space and gas-guzzling powertrains. Furthermore, quality problems have plagued the Grand Cherokee from the beginning, and sundry cheap interior bits don't help.

Still, the Grand Cherokee has a very loyal following among SUV buyers who actually do take them off-road, and Jeep has no fewer than three available four-wheel-drive systems to please them. The most off-road-worthy are the Laredos with the optional 235-hp V-8 and Quadra-Trac II four-wheel drive, since the Laredo has huge slabs of dark gray body cladding to protect from scuffs and scratches while boulder-hopping, whereas the painted lower panels of the Limited and Overland trims might give you an ulcer as you try to keep from harm under the same circumstances.

Regardless of trim level, however, the Grand Cherokee's high-floor, low-ceiling architecture sandwiches the driver into a relatively car-like seating position, which is odd at first considering how high up you are, but quickly becomes one of its endearing qualities. Unless you're 6-foot five.